Draft:Jonathan Straight

Jonathan Michael Straight (born March 1965) is a British entrepreneur, photographer, and international speaker. He is the founder and was the chief executive of Straight plc, from 1993 till 2014. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce.

Early life and education
Straight received an honorary doctorate in Business Administration from the York St. John University. In 1988, he changed his family name by deed poll from Gay to Straight.

Career
Straight established his own company in 1993 supplying container solutions.

He started Straight plc (now Straight Ltd) as a one-man operation. Now, the company is among leading suppliers in the UK for recycling container solutions. The company’s annual turnover reached £30M. In 2014, Straight received an offer and sold his shares for Straight PLC and left the company.

Straight is a photographer and philanthropist. He has launched The Lupin Company to market Australian sweet lupin.

Photography
Straight is a published and exhibited photographer. He held two exhibitions in Leeds. The first one in 2016/2017 at the former White Cloth Gallery showed street photography from a number of different locations and ran for four months. A later exhibition at the Victoria Gate centre showed shots from Leeds Pride.

In 2018, he produced a book of fine art photography, showing the work of Magen David Adom, the Israeli Ambulance Service.

Philanthropy
Straight is founder of the Straight Charitable Trust. He is chair of trustees of The Real Junk Food Project, and director of The Tetley. In addition, he is a trustee for both WasteAid and We are IVE.